Type in the content of your new page here. Donna Cameron’s class notes for blog in the week beginning September 7
*PROF. IS DR. WARREN BUCKLEITER
*PLEASE CALL HIM ON HIS MOBILE IF HE IS LATE IN MORNING TO CLASS COMING THRU THE LINCOLN TUNNEL from NJ@ 908-797-3580
*Please look over syllabus to discuss whether or not is is going to put you on overload if you are taking a full credit load or work We will discuss next week.
*email him at warren@mediatech.org
*Google him by name to track his work also on www.childrenssoftware.com -your current sign in keyword- apple; he welcomes field trips to his house in NJ to help review toys. Let’s go!
http://www.robinraskin.com/ Come up with some questions for her, she has ideas about raising digital kids. Next week we have a visitor. Robin Raskin- google her name. She is an expert on college admissions. She will talk about social computing. What do you think that Robin Raskin will say about httpBarbie Dolls.com Visit her Yahoo blog- get inside her head as much as you can. She is really in tuned to the current trends of kids. Good at predicting them
www.piaget.org- Learn all about how Piaget changed thinking on education. Also go to wikipedia.com and check out Jean Piaget’s info.
Homework Protocol for class:
Do it online on the blog.
If you have a reaction to a topic, post it. Ethnography Project
Begin, perhaps a Piagetian test- very important to get your head around the mindset of minds in concrete operational stage. Play patterns and reinforcement theories.
Week 1 NOTES Class stuff:
-Prof. went over syllabus calendar and passed around sign up sheet for
-If there is something you’d like to see, tell Prof. and he will try to get it for you.
-We will build new textbook with Prof. Buckleiter.
-We should buy the 2 textbooks- listed on syllabus- at amazon.com
General thinking stuff:
-Children are not ignorant
-Think of feeding an infant as an interactive activity.
-You should start off understanding dust elements in the design you are envisioning as well as the magic, from a global perspective- think through the eyes of a child.
-Remember hardware vs software issues, hands on, objects in space,etc.
-The notion of dust or magic- an idea can turn from dust to magic, depending on the talent of the person who rubs against it.”---Matsu Basho- haiku master- 15th century
-Design teams consisting of product manager, artist, programmers, etc. do best design work often.
-It’s very important to remember your own childhood as you begin a design.
-The genius of childhood is simplicity, and simplicity means direct access to the utter essence and function of interface.
“Nintendo has the magic-someone there understands the magic- it’s been ahead of the rest of the products on the market since the first Mario!”//
-----Prof. BUCKLEITER in class today.
-Always ask questions about process of developing an idea through copyright to the market place because it’s a very difficult journey from idea to product. Often, the designer is not the one who makes the big money, and often the designer is not very well treated by the corporate guys, investors, etc.
-We will cover how to research how something works or not throughout this class in the coming weeks. Brainstorm, come up with at least four or five ideas.
-There are holes in the market in the area of simulations. Empowerment is a key point- either make your idea tangible, part of the real world or find a way to program it on a cell phone.
-Child development ethnography project- it’s related to going out with a camera and seeing how kids react. Document what a child’s like at each stge.-
-The key to understanding interface is understanding engagement and motivation of the user. There are extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for engagement.
-Extrinsic reasons- pleas family, make money -Intrinsic reasons
Understanding human development psychology is important to understanding a how to create and market a toy. Be in touch with your inner child. What do kids like?
Kids like :
To Collect things.
To See their own name.
To Own something,
To Be Empowered,
To feel secure, not threatened.
Pokeman is magic- it combined collecting and control and empowerment and took it to a sharing thing- you can beam it to a friend! Children are drawn to it’s immediacy. They like its response ot their touch, they want to be able to click thru it.
Pokeman is Cognitive dynamite!
Four ingredients of intrinsic motivation (In reading explained further.)
Enjoyment- understood very well by Walt Disney. The initial 15 seconds should be one of joy. What’s the first experience with a lot of software which is dust is first killer of joy- don’t kill joy- no amount of info can bring it back. Eg.- in many windows softwares you get the number row- it is the serial number registration process. Layers of activity like this can be kill first moments and nix any enjoyment mode of product
Control- People like to push buttons and have things happens- the best stuff is “digital playdo”. Maleableity and accidental success are important- e.g.-if you lean on the keyboard and do something, and better yet, it’s the right something, you have experienced random chance and affirmation of yourself in a positive way, in a moment of joy. The line up of the PSP interface- too complex. Nintendo, however, has big targets and did the pointer and rollover thing and you get it as soon as you hit it you rollover and get engagement from the start and drawn in to the interface- and that’s the magic. Kids will choose and buy products which are very direct and give control.
Interest- Build interest by having items that kids are familiar with already. What are kids into? Things that are part of their real tangible lives. Give them hook. Let the puppy have legs and an alien friend too, etc. Come up with a metaphor when you design- an environment that kids can enter and can interact in/with and get response to/in. It’s important to catch the first wave in a trend for your design, if you want to do the million dollar idea. Remember-kids come to interactivity because they want to interact. E.g - Club Penguin- founded by 3 dads for their kids- made an environment where they could play their games. Questions of social interest apply to differences of boys and girls interest, how it is aroused and how it subscribes. Are there really stereotypes? Kids know the difference between real and fantastic. Stereotyping comes right through mass media and interactive media is part of that. Interactive media is gender neuter- both boys and girls like feelings of ecif
Defs and Vocabs
Minimum User Competency Skill -you need to survive in that interactive space. In the case of Matthew...first mouse it is fine motor skill- its important to make a list of every single skill you need to play your design. If your minimum skill is above your target audience, you are in trougle. E.g. if you design for preschoolers- don’t include a lot of necessary reading material in the interface. Nintendo made a wi-remote. Minimum user competency in the wi is below the others- to Nintendo’s advantage. In a pen/wand based interface minimum user competency again drops below average. Everyone can wave their hands. If you want to make it magic, make it minimum user competency. If you can design a good interface for children, it is going to have great usability for all human beings, any age. Concrete-operational stages –how we come to learn things in all developmental stages Low Responsivity- Maximum instruction and reinforcements. High Responsivity-Minimal instructions and reinforcements. Random imbedded reinforcment and Non-imbedded reinforcement.
Game Screening Today:
1.Matthew’s-first mouse
Beam of light on head- unilateral focus- sensory motor on the needs and works at the level of an infant/toddler stage of human development.
Child can make it his/her own. Matthew had never used a mouse- Warren told parents not to teach him how before Warren’s product test. Warren thinks that the game works for Matthew because of the mouse rollover design and because he immediately felt some involvement and control- this secured his graphic engagement. When he was done, moved the mouse out, the music went off and the movie play ended. This action gave the child a sense of power and security- he controls when the world happens, it doesn’t happen to him. It’s like an inverse relationship- kid’s relate to this.
2. Counting Critters-(you can download it- it runs on Mac OS 9). Sample #1 with VO:
Basic interactivity- you feed the critters. Talking voiceover. Ring bell when done- kid stayed with activity for about 5 minutes
Warren’s document Camero on child’s eyes face, and hands on mouse. This is and example of Low Responsitivity- Maximum instruction and reinforcements. Sample #2 with VO:
No voice. How does she know what to do? Kids just do stuff. The #1 dust maker of an activity is underestimating the audience. Over the shoulder VOs are the best instructions. E.g. if nothing happens child can be told: ‘Why don’t you move the mouse’ by the VO. High Responsitivity- Minimal instructions and reinforcements.
Random imbedded reinforcemnt and non-imbedded reinforcement of cute sounds and munching sounds. Shelly Day and Ron designed children’s
Will explain more next week:
Sensory motor, chewing on bar.
Pre operational- spitting off cars, etc
Concrete operational-
Formal operational-
Donna Cameron’s class notes for blog in the week beginning September 7
*PROF. IS DR. WARREN BUCKLEITER
*PLEASE CALL HIM ON HIS MOBILE IF HE IS LATE IN MORNING TO CLASS COMING THRU THE LINCOLN TUNNEL from NJ@ 908-797-3580
*Please look over syllabus to discuss whether or not is is going to put you on overload if you are taking a full credit load or work We will discuss next week.
*email him at warren@mediatech.org
*Google him by name to track his work also on www.childrenssoftware.com -your current sign in keyword- apple; he welcomes field trips to his house in NJ to help review toys. Let’s go!
Reading homework:
http://dustormagic.wikispaces.com/Readings
Child Development 101 for the Developers of Children's Interactive Media
U.B. Funkeys Development Story
http://www.robinraskin.com/
Come up with some questions for her, she has ideas about raising digital kids. Next week we have a visitor. Robin Raskin- google her name. She is an expert on college admissions. She will talk about social computing.
What do you think that Robin Raskin will say about httpBarbie Dolls.com
Visit her Yahoo blog- get inside her head as much as you can. She is really in tuned to the current trends of kids. Good at predicting them
www.piaget.org- Learn all about how Piaget changed thinking on education. Also go to wikipedia.com and check out Jean Piaget’s info.
Check out
www.childrenssoftware.com/dustormagic/
Homework Protocol for class:
Do it online on the blog.
If you have a reaction to a topic, post it.
Ethnography Project
Begin, perhaps a Piagetian test- very important to get your head around the mindset of minds in concrete operational stage. Play patterns and reinforcement theories.
Week 1 NOTES
Class stuff:
-Prof. went over syllabus calendar and passed around sign up sheet for
-If there is something you’d like to see, tell Prof. and he will try to get it for you.
-We will build new textbook with Prof. Buckleiter.
-We should buy the 2 textbooks- listed on syllabus- at amazon.com
General thinking stuff:
-Children are not ignorant
-Think of feeding an infant as an interactive activity.
-You should start off understanding dust elements in the design you are envisioning as well as the magic, from a global perspective- think through the eyes of a child.
-Remember hardware vs software issues, hands on, objects in space,etc.
-The notion of dust or magic- an idea can turn from dust to magic, depending on the talent of the person who rubs against it.”---Matsu Basho- haiku master- 15th century
-Design teams consisting of product manager, artist, programmers, etc. do best design work often.
-It’s very important to remember your own childhood as you begin a design.
-The genius of childhood is simplicity, and simplicity means direct access to the utter essence and function of interface.
“Nintendo has the magic-someone there understands the magic- it’s been ahead of the rest of the products on the market since the first Mario!”//
-----Prof. BUCKLEITER in class today.
-Always ask questions about process of developing an idea through copyright to the market place because it’s a very difficult journey from idea to product. Often, the designer is not the one who makes the big money, and often the designer is not very well treated by the corporate guys, investors, etc.
-We will cover how to research how something works or not throughout this class in the coming weeks. Brainstorm, come up with at least four or five ideas.
-There are holes in the market in the area of simulations. Empowerment is a key point- either make your idea tangible, part of the real world or find a way to program it on a cell phone.
-Child development ethnography project- it’s related to going out with a camera and seeing how kids react. Document what a child’s like at each stge.-
-The key to understanding interface is understanding engagement and motivation of the user. There are extrinsic and intrinsic motivations for engagement.
-Extrinsic reasons- pleas family, make money
-Intrinsic reasons
Understanding human development psychology is important to understanding a how to create and market a toy. Be in touch with your inner child. What do kids like?
Kids like :
To Collect things.
To See their own name.
To Own something,
To Be Empowered,
To feel secure, not threatened.
Pokeman is magic- it combined collecting and control and empowerment and took it to a sharing thing- you can beam it to a friend! Children are drawn to it’s immediacy. They like its response ot their touch, they want to be able to click thru it.
Pokeman is Cognitive dynamite!
Four ingredients of intrinsic motivation (In reading explained further.)
Defs and Vocabs
Minimum User Competency Skill -you need to survive in that interactive space. In the case of Matthew...first mouse it is fine motor skill- its important to make a list of every single skill you need to play your design. If your minimum skill is above your target audience, you are in trougle. E.g. if you design for preschoolers- don’t include a lot of necessary reading material in the interface. Nintendo made a wi-remote. Minimum user competency in the wi is below the others- to Nintendo’s advantage. In a pen/wand based interface minimum user competency again drops below average. Everyone can wave their hands. If you want to make it magic, make it minimum user competency. If you can design a good interface for children, it is going to have great usability for all human beings, any age.
Concrete-operational stages –how we come to learn things in all developmental stages
Low Responsivity- Maximum instruction and reinforcements.
High Responsivity-Minimal instructions and reinforcements.
Random imbedded reinforcment and Non-imbedded reinforcement.
Game Screening Today:
1.Matthew’s-first mouse
Beam of light on head- unilateral focus- sensory motor on the needs and works at the level of an infant/toddler stage of human development.
Child can make it his/her own. Matthew had never used a mouse- Warren told parents not to teach him how before Warren’s product test. Warren thinks that the game works for Matthew because of the mouse rollover design and because he immediately felt some involvement and control- this secured his graphic engagement. When he was done, moved the mouse out, the music went off and the movie play ended. This action gave the child a sense of power and security- he controls when the world happens, it doesn’t happen to him. It’s like an inverse relationship- kid’s relate to this.
2. Counting Critters-(you can download it- it runs on Mac OS 9).
Sample #1 with VO:
Basic interactivity- you feed the critters. Talking voiceover. Ring bell when done- kid stayed with activity for about 5 minutes
Warren’s document Camero on child’s eyes face, and hands on mouse. This is and example of Low Responsitivity- Maximum instruction and reinforcements.
Sample #2 with VO:
No voice. How does she know what to do? Kids just do stuff. The #1 dust maker of an activity is underestimating the audience. Over the shoulder VOs are the best instructions. E.g. if nothing happens child can be told: ‘Why don’t you move the mouse’ by the VO.
High Responsitivity- Minimal instructions and reinforcements.
Random imbedded reinforcemnt and non-imbedded reinforcement of cute sounds and munching sounds. Shelly Day and Ron designed children’s
Will explain more next week:
Sensory motor, chewing on bar.
Pre operational- spitting off cars, etc
Concrete operational-
Formal operational-